September VHF Contest 2018

I got a late start on this years VHF Contest. As a matter of fact I did not start setting up till late Sunday morning. That is almost a whole 20+ hours after the contest had started. My wife and I went to Schell Osage Conservation Area near Schell City, Missouri. It has some camping areas and a fishing lake. This is also the place where we did the January VHF Contest in 2018. That Read More …

Joplin Hamfest 2018

Honey!!! Let’s go to the Joplin Hamfest!!! Nonetheless, we got up early on a Saturday morning and drove two hours for this? YES!!! The Joplin Hamfest is one the more organized hamfest in southwest Missouri. Furthermore I look forward to going to this every year. This year it was held at the Jack Lawton Convention Center just south of Joplin, MO. in a nearby town of Saginaw, MO. New venue, new vendors, new people, new Read More …

Pomme De Terre Rendezvous

I took a Hasselblad 500C/M to the local rendezvous and took a few snapshots. I had already had it loaded with Kodak Porta 160. I did not bring an extra back with B&W. Next time I will load it with Black & White film. These are not perfect shots or perfectly exposed. These are shot handheld using the sunny 16 rule. These negatives are developed by me and scanned by me with a Epson V550 Read More …

Ararat Shrine ARC Hambash 2018

My YL was gone and I had a couple of days left unattended so I made a quick dash up to the Ararat Shrine Hambash in Kansas City, MO. I had attended this event last year but I didn’t arrive till later in the day. This time I was there before they opened the doors at 7:30 am. There were a whole bunch of people and vendors there. I did run in to a few Read More …

January VHF Contest 2018

VHF Contest Time! This time I kinda stepped up my game. September 2017 VHF contest  I ran 7 watts of power into a 3 element yagi antenna. Furthermore, I had some time to somewhat prepare for this one. Bumped up my power to 50 watts SSB I bought(2 days before contest time) a 6m 3 element yagi (never did get it tuned up in time for the contest). Bought a 30-foot push-up pole because height Read More …

VHF Contest September 2017

I didn’t prepare much for Septembers VHF contest.  I threw together a 6m dipole and I already had a 3el 2m beam that I hadn’t used much yet!  So that was my total preparation. My wife had some family property that was only a few minutes away from our QTH that was at a higher elevation than we were at home. So that is where we found ourselves with the Jeep and the rooftop camper. I only Read More …

Joplin Hamfest 2017

The wife and I hopped in the Jeep and headed for the Joplin hamfest. However, the Hamfest that was held on August 26th this year. On the way down we listened to the 7.290 Traffic Net. This was Hurricane Harvey that was hitting Texas. Lots more people here this year than last year! Hung out with W0EBV and had an eyeball QSO! After all that walking around and looking at what Joplin Hamfest had to Read More …